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A go-kart fan in India has died after getting her hair caught in the wheel of the vehicle she was racing in, according to a news report published in the US’s Fox News website yesterday.

Puneet Kaur, aged 28 years, was visiting the Aqua Village amusement park, a popular destination for families near her home in Rampura Phul, a locality of the Punjab city of Bathinda, when the incident occurred. She had been visiting the park with her husband, Amardeep Singh and their 2-year-old son and their family when they decided to try out the go-kart racing course.

According to police sources mentioned in the Indian national newspaper the Hindustan Times, Kaur and her husband Amardeep Singh got in one cart, while their child and his grandmother rode in another one. As the vehicles began racing, Kaur’s hair was suddenly trapped in the wheel of her cart, causing catastrophic injuries to her scalp.

“My wife and I were enjoying the ride on the go-kart. Suddenly, my wife’s hair got loose and I heard her scream. I raised an alarm and when the kart stopped, her scalp was peeled off. I do not know the quality of the rubber band and the helmet given to my wife,” Kaur’s husband told police, according to the Indian Express, another national newspaper.

After the accident, Puneet Kaur was immediately rushed to hospital, but tragically, she failed to make it. The incident is now under investigation by the Punjab police and the amusement park has closed the race track to visitors, pending the investigation’s outcome.

“The exact cause of death is unclear, but we will know after we receive details of the post mortem report,” a police officer told the British public service broadcaster BBC.

The manager for the amusement park told the Hindustan Times that the incident has “left everyone shocked.”

“Usually, all safety measures are followed,” Yadavindra Gardens manager Neeraj Gupta told the newspaper. “One person has been tasked with ensuring that all people wear proper head gear and follow other rules before using a go-kart. It is shocking this incident happened.”

Six men were reported injured after a ‘noxious substance’ was thrown in a street fight near the Stratford Centre shopping arcade in Stratford, east London yesterday at around 8 pm, Sky News said today.

The incident occurred near to a Subway restaurant on the Broadway, close to Stratford’s bus station and the Westfield Stratford City retail complex. Three of the individuals needed hospital treatment after having a chemical thrown on them during the mêlée between two separate groups of males, Sky News reported. A 15-year-old boy was arrested on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm.

Shoppers saw one man in agony as friends called for help by shouting “it is an acid attack, his skin is burning”. People rushed to the scene with water to ease the man’s chemical burns, according to the broadcaster.

One eyewitness, an assistant manager of a local Burger King restaurant who only gave his name as Hossen, told Sky News that he saw a victim and another male believed to be the victim’s friend, run into his restaurant and then to its washroom, desperate to wash off the corrosive chemical. Hossen said “There were cuts around his eyes and he was trying to chuck water into them”

The area where the fight took place was quickly cordoned off and treatment offered to the victims. Police, paramedics and fire crews all attended within 10 minutes. Paul Gibson, an assistant director of operations with the London Ambulance Service, said: “We treated six patients in total and took three to London hospitals”.

Stratford administratively falls under the London Borough of Newham, and the borough’s police chief superintendent, Ade Adelekan, said: “I would like to be very clear concerning this incident.

“What initially may have been perceived as a number of random attacks has, on closer inspection, been found to be one incident involving two groups of males”.

Sky News reports that none of the men suffered serious harm in the street fight.

Attacks on people by assailants with chemicals such as sulphuric acid, bleach and drain cleaner were once associated with honour attacks in places like South Asia, but have become increasingly common in London, due to the ease of buying and carrying around dangerous chemicals, and the punishment for such attacks is less severe than assaults with knives or guns.

In June, 21-year-old student and model Resham Khan was travelling in Newham’s Beckton area with her cousin, Jameel Mukhtar, when an assailant flung acid in their faces while they were waiting at traffic lights. Even as far as back as 2011, a mother had acid splashed at her while walking her two children home from school in Upton Park. Latest figures published by the Evening Standard suggest a quarter of all acid attacks in London this year have occurred within Newham’s boundaries.

Lanark, UNITED KINGDOM

VIJAY SHAH via STEPHEN JONES and Mirror

A police force in Scotland have been condemned for excessive force after officers handcuffed a schoolboy with autism after he got into a fight with his brother in class, The Mirror newspaper reports.

Twelve-year-old Colin Gow, who attends Lanark Grammar school in Lanark, got into a dispute with his older brother Keiran, aged 13 and also autistic. He allegedly hurled a plastic bottle at his brother which set off the fight, and was then subsequently handcuffed by police. Colin was said to have been left ‘distressed and sobbing’ after the incident, which took place at a special Additional Support Needs class.

Colin and Keiran’s father, Colin Gow Senior, told the Mirror: “It broke my heart to see my son in handcuffs.

“It wasn’t the way to deal with this incident.”

“The first thing I did was ask the officer to take the handcuffs off – he was clearly very distressed – and I put my arms round him to comfort him,” he said.

Lanarkshire authorities said that Colin had to be handcuffed for his own and others’ safety, but the boy’s parents have demanded an urgent review of how the incident was handled by police and the school. The incident took place just before the end of the school day on February 2nd, and a pair of officers were called to Lanark Grammar, where they handcuffed Colin, who also has spina bifida and is only 5’1″ tall. As a result, Colin’s parents now say he has developed a phobia of the police. The child also had to be taken for treatment at Wishaw General Hospital in Wishaw, north Lanarkshire county, the Mirror states.

Police and education chiefs at South Lanarkshire Council insist Colin had to be restrained to keep everyone “safe from physical harm”. Police representatives also claimed that Colin’s special education needs and his conditions were not made apparent to them at the time.

According to the Daily Record newspaper, Colin started attending Lanark Grammar, which was founded in 1183 and is one of Scotland’s oldest secondary schools (for pupils aged 11-16), after he was expelled from his previous school for allegedly punching a teacher. Lanark Grammar has a specialist unit for children with ‘Additional Support Needs’, including those with autism and dyslexia. During the day, Colin attends the unit and mixes with the non-unit students during morning assemblies, break times and lunch hours.

Despite the school’s specialism, Colin’s parents expressed concerns about the way his condition is being handled. His mother, Sharon, said that she was informed that they as parents would not have to do anything as the school’s dedicated staff would handle any issues that arose. They were at first optimistic that Colin would thrive at Lanark Grammar, but Sharon told the Mirror that Colin was not getting the support he badly needed.

South Lanarkshire Council’s head of education Carole McKenzie confirmed the police were called into the school as a result of “concerns for the pupil’s safety”.

She said the boy was attempting to leave school grounds without permission, which his parents deny.

Whitstable, UNITED KINGDOM

VIJAY SHAH via KEELY LOCKHART, PA & The Telegraph

There have been reports of a large explosion and fire in Whitstable, Kent, in the south of England, leaving two men injured, according to national newspaperThe Telegraph.

The explosion, believed to be centred around a subterranean gas main (gas pipe) at the Estuary View Business Park, an industrial site, occurred at 10:00 pm yesterday night, The Telegraph reports.

One of the victims, a gas engineer who was repairing the main at the time, suffered burns to his legs and face and was rushed to William Harvey Hospital in nearby Ashford, also in Kent county, by emergency services who arrived at the scene. A second man, possibly a fellow engineer or passer-by, sustained minor injuries.

The injured engineer, employed by the gas distribution firm SGN, had been called out to fix an issue with the medium-pressure main believed tampered with by an unknown ‘third party’, when the gas ignited. It is not known what exactly set off the explosion. The second casualty was treated at the scene. Neither are in serious danger.

File image (c) robert wade

Images posted by local man Chris Rowden on Twitter showed large orange flames rising from the ground ferociously, with ambulance teams from the South East Coast Ambulance Service and fire engines in attendance. Another witness, who lives a mile away from the scene, reported seeing the sky ‘lit up’ at the time of the incident.

Kent Fire and Rescue, which manages emergency services in the county, told the Telegraph that SGN was able to cut off the gas supply to the main and extinguish the fire at around 3 am this morning. A spokesperson told the paper “It is not known what caused the explosion at this stage.”

To minimise the risk of secondary gas leaks or explosions to Whitstable residents, SGN ordered the ceasing of gas supply to 430 homes in the Old Thanet Way residential area, and Kent police has set up roadblocks near the business park the gas explosion occurred in.

In a statement, SGN said: “It is too early to know what caused the fire last night but an investigation is under way.

“We would like to reassure the local community that we are continuing to closely monitor the situation to ensure their safety.”

Luton, UNITED KINGDOM

VIJAY SHAH via DAVID BARRETT & The Telegraph

A British four-year-old child was allegedly threatened with counter-terrorism measures after mispronouncing the word ‘cucumber‘ as ‘cooker bomb’ as a wave of hysteria permeates the U.K. in the light of ongoing terrorism threats, national newspaper The Telegraph yesterday.

The unidentified boy was at nursery when teachers overheard him say ‘cooker bomb’ instead of cucumber during play and workers at the nursery have said the child should be referred to a de-radicalisation and counter-terrorism project, despite the fact that many children of his age regularly mispronounce longer words.

The boy, said to be of ‘Asian‘ heritage, also allegedly drew a picture of a man chopping up a cucumber, technically a fruit, but used widely as a vegetable in both British and South Asian cooking, with a large knife, which triggered further concerns in the worried nursery workers.

Staff at the nursery in Luton, Bedfordshire, around 33.5 miles from central London, spoke with the boy’s mother and said he commented ‘cooker bomb’ when asked about the subject of his picture. They also expressed a wish to refer the incident to the ‘Prevent’ deradicalisation scheme, run by the Home Office government agency. Instead the case was referred to police and social services, who decided no further action would be taken, according to the BBC Asian Network.

The little boy’s mother, who was not named in the Telegraph report, told the newspaper “[The member of nursery staff] kept saying it was this one picture of the man cutting the cucumber, which she said to me is a ‘cooker bomb’.

“I was baffled. It was a horrible day.”

The mother also expressed fears that her child would be taken away from her into care once social services became involved. The case echoes that of a 10-year-old boy, also British Asian, who was visited by police at his home, after he wrote ‘terrorist house’ instead of ‘terraced house’ for a school assignment, triggering a radicalisation alert from his teacher.

Since July 2015, as part of the UK government’s strategy to combat extremism and radicalisation among young people and the voting in of the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act, teachers have been required to report any incidents alluding to terrorism and violence amongst their pupils, but this has led to numerous mistakes, many almost farcical, as teachers complained that the reporting rules were not clear enough. Many teaching unions have said that the government measures have been poorly laid out to the educational community.

“They think Ofsted is going to criticise them if they haven’t reported these things, and you end up [with] the boy making the spelling mistake, or the boy saying something in Arabic – that then gets reported on.”

Figures published by the Telegraph state that just under 2,000 under-15s were referred to counter-terrorism and de-radicalisation initiatives such as Prevent in the period between January 2012 and December 2015.

More than a month after British theme parkAlton Towers became a disaster zone when its Smiler ride malfunctioned, seriously injuring four people, another rollercoaster broke down yesterday, which was the hottest day of the year so far. The broken down car was alleged to have helped trap more than eighty people on and around the ride for two hours, the Metro newspaper reports.

On the same day the United Kingdom experienced the hottest daytime temperatures since 2003, the theme park’s Air rollercoaster seized up, causing dozens of thrillseekers to be suspended upside-down mid-air for twenty minutes. Another eighty visitors hoping to follow them onto Air were stuck in sweltering carriages for more than an hour after two monorail trains stopped.

Air , montagnes russes à Alton Towers (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

At the beginning of last month, sixteen people on a rollercoaster car on the recently opened Smiler were injured when it collided with an empty car parked further down the ride after the safety braking mechanisms failed. Two of the injured visitors had legs amputated due to their horrific injuries.

A spokesman said delays were ‘within expected levels’ and the monorail would re-open on Thursday.

It took an hour for Alton Towers staff to remove 80 people off the monorail using the evacuation walkways installed for such emergencies.

A spokesman told the BBC television broadcaster: “The train drivers kept guests informed via the on board PA system and refreshments were provided.”

Guests trapped on the Air ride were rescued “within standard operating procedures”, according to the theme park’s management. Nobody was injured in the rollercoaster malfunction, and there are no reports of damage to the ride. After the Smiler incident, Alton Towers agreed to pay compensation to the affected and also to review their safety and maintenance policies.

Air is a fast-paced ride that promises visitor they will “experience the feeling of flying” as they sail into the clouds and through the resort’s trees. It is located in the Forbidden Valley section of the park and stands at a height of 20 metres. Its cars can reach speeds of 75 kilometres per hour along the 850 metre long track and was built at a cost of GBP £12 million. Air can accommodate 1,500 riders per hour.

One person has died and 11 have been injured after a driver used his vehicle to accelerate and mow down pedestrians in the popular seaside resort of Venice Beach near Los Angeles in the American state of California.

Witnesses reported seeing a driver in a black saloon-type car rapidly accelerate down the Venice Beach Boardwalk, a pedestrian-priority promenade facing the beach, before he indiscriminately ploughed into tourists leisurely strolling along the pavement.

Venice Beach and the Boardwalk, as seen in the music video for “When Love Takes Over” (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Californian summer brought out thousands of tourists and sun-seekers at around 6:40pm local time, the busiest time for the area, and witnesses described the boardwalk as being packed with people when the motorist rampaged through the crowd. He then fled the scene, leaving the promenade “in chaos”, according to a report by Singapore’s Strait Times.

The victim, who has not yet been identified, passed away from their injuries a few hours later in hospital after being struck in the crash, which happened yesterday (Saturday) evening, said Los Angeles police spokesperson Lt. Andy Neiman.

A security CCTV video taken at the scene shows the man parking his car at the boardwalk at sunset, leaving it for a while to watch the sun go down. He then re-entered the vehicle before driving it directly into the crowd at the beachwalk. Families, vendors, and street performers were seen fleeing for their lives as the man aimed at them, cutting an S-shape through the crowds of panicking holidaymakers. According to a news bulletin by local news television station KTLA, the young man first targeted a group of vendors near a cafe. People were said to have bounced off the bonnet of the man’s car “like bowling pins”, said KTLA reporter Steve Kuzj. Victims were left lying on the pavement, one was seen with bloody injuries to her arms. The unknown driver was said to have deliberately aimed his vehicle at innocent walkers at high speed before disappearing down a side street.

He left behind a scene of utter devastation and victims strewn along the roadside as frightened, but unharmed locals attempted to administer first aid amidst the confusion. “There was people kind of stumbling around, blood dripping down their legs looking confused not knowing what had happened, people screaming,” said 35-year-old Louisa Hodge, who was out enjoying the day on the Venice Beach boardwalk with a friend visiting from San Diego. Street furniture were also scattered around the incident zone.

Los Angeles police and local fire services attended the scene of the atrocity and the affected stretch of beach was closed until today.

Police have now apprehended the driver and have impounded the car after the killer fled on foot, according to another LAPD officer, Daniel Chun. No details are yet available on the driver’s identification or motive

The Venice Beach sidewalk draws in millions of tourists every year to California’s famed “Golden Coast”. It is renowned for its beachside cafes and restaurants. It is said to be the state’s most eccentric tourist hotspot, home to several tattoo parlours, skateboard parks and the legendary Muscle Beach, an outdoor weight-training gym. The beachfront runs for 2.5 miles along the town of Venice, in the Westside area of Los Angeles and it is normally a traffic-free zone.